The scourge of poverty, including its correlates, has been witnessing an incremental sequence over the years in Nigeria despite the natural endowment of the country. Efforts by various stakeholders to address this problem have not yielded tangible results. Using cross-sectional data collected in 2015 on 775 cassava farmers spread across four geographical zones, this study estimates multidimensional poverty of cassava producers in Nigeria. This is to determine the factors responsible for poverty increase and contribution(s) of these factors to poverty. The study found that about 74% of the respondents were multidimensionally poor. Assets and public/housing utility were the main contributors to aggregate multidimensional poverty index (MPI), while education and health contributed most to povertyreduction. The results also showed major contributing indicators to MPI to be formal employment, school enrolment, years of schooling, frequency of hospital visits, and household assets’ ownership. The South-eastzone of Nigeria had the highest adjusted headcount of poverty among cassava producers. The estimated coefficient of age, farming experience, years of schooling, household size, and access to informal credit were significant determinants of poverty in the study area. In conclusion, the results suggest that although Nigeria is a federation of more than 30 states that continue to rely on nation-wide policy initiatives of the central government, policies on cassava aiming to lift millions of people out of poverty should instead vary according to the peculiar poverty dimensions of each federation unit. We suggest reform in the agriculture sector that will emphasize facilitation and access to incentives (credits, training, extension, cooperate system, etc.) by younger farmers to engage in modern cassava farming, thereby, enhancing the chances of rural cassava growers to move out of poverty.

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This study investigates the effect of social capital investment on poverty reduction among fish farming households of Oyo State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was adopted in the selection of the respondents. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire from a representative sample size of 359 households in four local government areas representing the four agricultural zones, namely Ibadan-ibarapa, Oyo, Ogbomoso and Saki in Oyo State, Nigeria. The study used a multinomial logit regression model to examine the effect of social capital on household poverty. The estimates of the regression model indicated that, in addition to the socio-economic characteristics of some households, social capital endowments have significant effect on the probability of a household being poor. The study concluded that, among other factors, social capital is very important in reducing household’s poverty. It was therefore recommended that stakeholders should be encouraged to invest in households’ social capital to accelerate poverty reduction among the fish farmers in the study area.

Food security, at national and household levels, is on the decline because traditional capital (physical, natural, human and financial) has not fully led to its improvement. There is an increasing shift of attention to social capital as an element that explains household food security, but there is a lack of adequately documented information on this. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of social capital on food security, using data collected on a cross-section of 775 cassava farming households from four zones of Nigeria. About 58% of the respondents (cassava farming households) fall under the intermediate category in terms of the benefits received from belonging in social groups. Age and educational level increased the probability to receive benefit from group activities (p < 0.05), while membership density, labor contribution and decision making significantly affected the level of benefit received (p < 0.10). Based on the estimated food security line, 41% of the cassava households were food secure, while 59% were food insecure. Membership density, cash and labor contribution significantly affected food security. Membership density (p < 0.10) and cash contribution (p < 0.05) increased the probability of being food secure. It was recommended that cassava farming households should be encouraged or aided to form cooperatives or farmers’ groups, participate in the activities, and make financial contributions to investments that reduce manual labor-input in the farming activities to enhance household food security.

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This study analyzes the production efficiency of farm households exhibiting significant non-farm earnings in Egbeda Local Government Area of Oyo State. The data for the study were collected from 120 farm households selected through multistage random sampling. Data envelope analysis (DEA), which reveals production inefficiencies, was used to estimate the production efficiency of the farm households (DMUs) via the input-output bundle of each farm household (technical efficiency and scale efficiency) and the output price information (allocative efficiency). A follow-up, censored regression (tobit model) analysis was carried out to determine factors affecting production efficiency indices and discern possible sources of inefficiency. The study revealed that majority of the household heads (farmers) were relatively old, had formal education, and had relatively large household size (7-9). Their farm size and farming income was, however, relatively small. Participation in non-farm activities was active, with a large proportion engaged in regular employment. About 22.1 percent of the farm households involved in non-farm activities invested their non-farm earnings into agriculture. The DEA revealed that the mean technical, allocative, and scale efficiencies for the total sample population were 0.5802, 0.5960 and 0.9250, respectively. The tobit analysis revealed the existence of dependency ratio, high ratio of female adults to male adults, high proportion of total household income coming from non-farm earning, male-headed household, access to credit facilities, and founding family status, had positive impact 2 O. A. Oni et al. on production efficiency whereas tenure insecurity contributed to inefficiency in farm household production.

This study analysed cocoa farmers’ attitude to risk and effects on their income in Ondo State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to select a representative sample (234) for this study. Attitudinal Scale Approach (ASA) model, Gross margin and Likert’s scale were used to analysed the data collected. Results showed that the mean age of the respondents was 50.27 years with an average of 15.98 years of experience. The sources of risks perceived by the cocoa farming households as threats to cocoa production were Natural risks (63.68%), social risks (88.89%), economic risks (75.21%), production risk (52.14%) and marketing risks (76.92%). The result of ASA model using Likert’s scale showed that 37.61%, 36.75% and 25.64% of the respondents were respectively categorized as risk averse, neutral and preferring individuals. Results of costs and returns analysis of cocoa farms in the study area indicated that the average farm’s profitability level wasN185,423,725. Regression result showed that the variables that determine farmer’s income included social risks (p<0.001), economic risks (p<0.001) and production risks (p<0.001) and marketing risks (p<0.001). The study concluded that plant diseases, theft of the crop, low market demand, low labour supply and Instability of price among others are the severe types of risks that affect cocoa productivity and all year source of risk to cocoa production in the study area.